Stephanie’s Review of “House of Earth and Blood” by Sarah J. Maas

By: Stephanie Wyatt

House of Earth and Blood tells the story of Bryce Quinlan, a young half-human half-fae. She’s relatable because she lives with her best friend Danika in a slightly rundown apartment in Crescent City. She works for a magic artifact dealer, Jesiba Roga, who doesn’t pay her nearly enough for the danger she faces doing her job.

She gets involved in a case after one night at a club and is partnered with a brooding fallen angel, Hunt Athalar, to help solve the case with the help of her half-brother Ruhn and some friends.

Let me start by saying that I love the world-building in this book. I love books that have all magical creatures coexisting in one world. It usually breeds some interesting politics, and this did not disappoint. I also found it incredibly relatable because they had reality tv shows, video chatted with their parents, and went to clubs. They just happen to be mythical creatures.

I appreciated the relationship dynamics between the characters. I feel a lot of fantasy books tend to make everything so serious. This had the serious elements sandwiched between humor. Every single character grew in some way by the end of the book.

The only slight issue I had was because it was marketed as adult. I expected the scenes to be a little more graphic given the author’s other books, but there was a lot of action to move the plot, so I can understand why the scenes happened the way they did.

This is the first book in the Crescent City series, and I’m excited to see where the series goes. The sequel House of Sky and Breath releases today.

Overall, if you are a stressed person who needs a good book to take you away for a few days, I recommend this one completely. I normally don’t reread books for at least a year after I originally finished them. I wanted to read it again immediately after I read the last page.

You can buy the series on Amazon or anywhere books are sold.